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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold and Silver Juniors, Mid-tiers and Producers -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: loantech who wrote (20555)	9/9/2006 12:37:30 PM
From: onepath	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78419

Another good reason of your strategy of staying to safer locations. Another blow for Oxus Gold By: Charles Carlisle Posted: '09-SEP-06 12:00' GMT © Mineweb 1997-2006 LONDON (Mineweb.com) --UK-based gold mining junior, Oxus Gold, has been having a tough time of it of late. Its dealings with Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzistan, where it has substantial mineral assets, have been mired in disputes and expropriations of assets which are likely to contribute to setting back potential western investment within these Former Soviet Union republics for many years. In Uzbekistan it has had its subsidiary company, Marakand Minerals’ license to develop the Khandiza gold and zinc deposit arbitrarily revoked last month. This license has now been transferred to the state-owned mining company, the Almalyk Mining and Smelting Combine. In Kyrgyzistan, the company has been fighting a government decision to abrogate its license to work the Jerooy gold mine in that country’s Northern Talas region due to an alleged failure to meet contractual commitments and supposed delays in starting commercial gold mining production there after investing a reported $50 million in building a new process plant and mine infrastructure. Oxus had been planning to produce around 180,000 ounces of gold a year from the project at an estimated cash cost of US$133 an ounce from mineable reserves of 9.9 million tons grading 7.5 grams per ton. On Friday, though, it was reported that Kyrgyz authorities seized the company’s plant and assets and that the state gold mining company, Kyrgyzaltyn, put in its own security guards and halted plant construction. The plant seizure was, according to an Associated Press report, authorised by the region’s deputy governor. AP went on to quote Jerooy Deputy Director, Fred Huston, as saying "There are no court decisions and explanation why our assets have been expropriated." In fact dealings by the Kyrgyz Government over Oxus’s investment in Jerooy seem to have been exceedingly murky for some time now. There appears to have been a concerted local press campaign to blacken Oxus including allegations that construction was carried out without a permit (despite it being launched ceremonially by the then Prime Minister!), and on environmental and ecological grounds, despite the whole operation being supervised almost weekly by the local Environment agency. More recently reports have emerged of a mysterious Austrian company, Global Gold Holding GmbH, reaching an agreement with Kyrgyzaltyn to set up a new joint venture to mine the Jerooy deposit to the apparent exclusion of Oxus. Meanwhile Oxus is seeking arbitration on the Kyrgyz Government in respect of the Jerooy dispute. The notice has been served pursuant to the UK-Kyrgyz Republic Bilateral Investment Treaty. But whether any notice of arbitration results will be acted on by the Kyrgyz Government if matters go against them, is altogether another matter.